My Week in Verbs #20

Week #20: Monday 13th - Sunday 19th May 2013

This week I...

...bought new Pyrex...

It's the rectangular version of a casserole dish I already have. £3 from BHF charity shop :)

...Burnt an almond cake...

BUT the recipe is a good'un, just a few tweaks needed I think...

...Discovered what my Great-Great-Grandma looked like...

 Meet Catherine - a formidable woman by all accounts! 

I don't know when this was taken but Grandma was born in 1934, so if this is her Gran, it could be anywhere between about 1910 and 1940?

...Restarted watching The Killing. I watched the first five of so episodes a few months ago but lost track. Managed to make time to concentrate on it  (I find it hard watching things with subtitles because reading the dialogue means I can't listen and crochet/knit/blog at the same time, and I feel unproductive, which I know is silly) and I'm really enjoying it so far :)

...Began tapering my running. The Edinburgh Half Marathon is only 7 days away now so today instead of a long run of 10+ miles, I did an 'easy' 10k, which turned out not to be so easy and I ended up sweaty and covered in greenfly - hopefully that won't happen on the day!

This week I will mostly be eating pasta.....

Charming Chatsworth

I mentioned in this post recently that one of the items on my Day Zero list was to visit Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, and I managed to achieve this on the bloggers' break at Norbury Manor in March. I must admit that at the time I felt slightly underwhelmed - I think I'd been looking forward to it for too long and built it up to something of Hampton Court Palace proportions in my head. That said, looking back at the pictures now I can appreciate that it is a pretty special place...

 Just look at that for an entrance hall for example!

We walked through room after room of palatial luxury. Our favourite was the library - how beautiful is it?! 

And I also loved this bed which reminded me of a chintzy old lampshade!

Check out that 'hot water bottle'!

The little details were equally as compelling as the obvious features though:

Birds wallpaper, random painting of the back end of a horse, amazing carpet.

And the infamous 'bath in a cupboard' - the first known en suite!

There were scores of beautiful sculptures, but my faves were (of course) these iconic lions. You could buy bookend versions in the shop and I was very tempted despite the hefty price tag.

Look at those beautiful great big paws!!!!

We weren't so keen on this creepy sculpture though. This veiled lady featured in the Pride and Prejudice film apparently. Yes that is a human heart she's holding - eek!

The girls even got a chance to dress up in period costume (until some snotty kids came along and shoved us out of the way!). I loved this skirt on Maria:

Despite the slightly grey and gloomy weather, the grounds were just as impressive as the house.

There were greenhouses where the family cultivated their own Cavendish Banana!

These bush things are so full of character - they reminded me of the Barbapapa creatures and look as though they could come alive at any moment...

There was a maze!

Excitable before entering, trying to find the middle, but only encountering dead end after dead end. Honestly - the most frustrating thing ever!

And there were ducks everywhere!

What more could you want?

Day Zero watch:

#13 - Visit Chatsworth House - DONE!

Running total: 33/101